大象传媒

I was an 8 year old boy at the outbreak of the 2nd World War and these are my memories. Living in Beake Avenue, Radford, we were a family of five; my parents and three sons, of which I was the youngest. The first thing I remember is the rationing. Not many sweets may have been a good thing as I had very few dental problems in later life. My mother was a very good manager so no-one went hungry. We took delivery of an Anderson shelter and erected it at the bottom of the garden digging it to maximum depth. Then the council re-enforced it with concrete inside.

We spent many nights in the shelter. There were spasmodic raids where nothing happened but I remember one such raid. After hearing the all-clear we came out of the shelter. There was a very low-flying aircraft overhead which was presumed friendly but minutes later it unloaded its bomb-load onto Wallace Road.

The November 14th 1940 Blitz night is very vivid in my memory as it started not long after tea. The sirens sounded the alert and almost right away gunfire and explosions were about us. My Mother, my next elder brother and I went to the shelter. My eldest brother had gone to the cinema and spent the night in a deep shelter. My father was doing some jobs in the kitchen and said he would carry on doing what he was doing as it might pass over. However he soon joined us. We had confidence in the shelter being safe, bar for a direct hit, but not being a deep underground shelter we were exposed to all the noise of exploding bombs. We were also exposed visibly, seeing out of the entrance of the shelter. There were flares and incendiaries lighting up the whole area and parachutes coming down, unknown to us, carrying mines which caused massive explosions. One landed in a nearby allotment. If it had landed in the road it would have took blocks of houses out. After the all-clear, coming out of the shelter, we found the house with roof damage but more or less intact. There was no water, gas or electricity. After wandering around, not on my own but with my brother who was 4 years older than me, we experienced the danger of delayed action bombs exploding. One exploded across the road in Hill Farm School, where I was a pupil, as we were looking at other damage.

I suppose, as a young boy, it all became a frightening adventure collecting bomb shrapnel and incendiary bomb fins. After that night my parents decided me and my brother would be evacuated. It was a happy experience for many but not for us.

We went by coach to Knowle although we did not know where we were and were billeted in a hall, which was fine. There were mattresses on the floor, mobile kitchens, whose food was ok and we had our own teachers. We were there for about a week. Then we had to have permanent accommodation. My brother and I had been into the village and met this lady who took us into her small cottage and gave us tea and bread and jam and said she would love to take two boys. But having no running water she may have been excluded from having evacuees. If we had gone to her it would have been a different story. We had to go where we were allocated and that was No 5 Milverton Road, Knowle. Arriving at the house there was a lady about to ring the bell and she asked us who we were. When told, she said we must have the wrong house as the people there would not dream of having evacuees. With that a lady opened the door and said to come in. With hindsight I think it was the financial incentive for having evacuees why we were there. There were two sisters and their mother, all retired. The only part of the house we were allowed was the kitchen to eat, which was very little and the bedroom. We had all been accommodated by now and attended the local school. By now our own teachers had gone home and the welcome at the village school wasn鈥檛 friendly. Some of these boys had had their homes destroyed and deserved better. One incident summed it up. We had been there about a fortnight and one of the evacuees had done something wrong-very minor, I recall. The head teacher gathered the whole school together in the playground to witness his discipline saying 鈥測ou (meaning the evacuees) are in Knowle and you will do as Knowle does鈥� and proceeded to give him 6 strokes of the cane. 鈥淲ell done the head for doing his bit for the war effort鈥�.

After this our thoughts were to get home. Come Saturday we had to report at the church for week-end activities. We were early and my brother said 鈥渓et鈥檚 have a walk down this road鈥�. There were no road signs as they had all been blacked out and we walked and walked till we reached home to another telling off for what we had done. My brother explained to our parents and my father said in future we will all stay put.

So came many more nights in the shelter culminating in the April Blitz of 1941, which I thought was more severe than the November raid. But it was shorter and lasted about 6 hours. Minor raids went on till the end of 1941 and then petered out when the enemy attacked Russia.

Just a few items to mention. My grandparents鈥� house in Eagle Street was completely destroyed, themselves surviving in a deep shelter. I had an Uncle killed in the Chantries and my Aunt badly injured.

Just a word about the people of the day. By and large they were marvellous. There was nothing they would not do to help each other but you always have a minority who take advantage of people鈥檚 misfortune, such as looting property, breaking into gas and electricity meters for the few shillings that was in them, after being bombed.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.